joomla2.5madeeasy

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People behind this book

Publication date: June 2012

Writers

Dao Ngoc Anh Tran Thi Phuong Hanh

Editors

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen Bui Anh Tuan Bui Huy Thang

Graphic Designers

Ho Huy Tung Luu Minh Son

Proofreader HTML Edition Voiceover

Steve Melville Ngo Le Tam Guershley


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Joomla! 2.5 Made Easy JoomlaShine.com

Twitterhttp://www.twitter.com/joomlashine | Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/joomlashine

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Step 1: Get to know about Joomla! CMS

Watch the video tutorial

In the past if you needed a website, the only option was to hire a professional web studio to build it and thenrely on them to maintain it. But now, with the rise of free open source software, you can easily build a website

yourself by using a Content Management System (CMS). There are several CMSs around, but the most

suitable for a small / medium website is Joomla!.

In this section you will find a brief introduction to Joomla! and what its main elements.

What is Joomla! CMS made of?

Joomla! logo

Joomla! CMS is free web-based software which allows you to create and manage websites. You can control:

1. Website content like text, photos, videos, etc.

2. Website appearance by utilizing templates3. Website functionalities by utilizing extensions.

There are 2 parts of the system: front-end and back-end.
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The front-end

The front-end is what people see when they access your website. Normally, there is a logo, menu bar, side

column and main text wrapped in the cool design.

The website front-end

Viewing article at front-end
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The back-end

The back-end administration area is where you control your website. Access is provided via a special login

page and only for users with administrator permission.

The website back-end

Editing an article in the backend


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What is Joomla! is made of

Now, lets explore the main parts of Joomla!

Content

In Joomla!, content consists of articles, categories and media.

Articles

Articles are the main building blocks of a Joomla! website. At the front-end you can easily recognize an article

as a piece of text with images presented in the main content area.

The article Beginners

At the back-end, articles are managed in the Article Manageraccessible via menu Content=> Article

Manager.

The Article Manager

Here, you can create new articles, edit them, choose to publish or unpublish them, etc.


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Categories

Categories help you to organize your articles more conveniently. You can imagine categories as folders

containing files. For example, a category Productscan contain all articles about your products. Or, a

category About Uscan contain articles like Our company, Our vision, Board of Director, etc.

At the back-end, categories are managed in Category Manageraccessible via menu Content=>

Category Manager.

The Category Manager

Here, you can create new categories, edit them, choose to publish or unpublish them, etc.

Media

Simply put, media are non-text stuff that you can put into your content. This can be not only images, but also

videos and other multimedia elements.

Media are managed in Media Manageraccessible via menu Content=> Media Manager.

Here, you can create new media folders, upload files, etc. We will discuss using Media Manager in more

detail in the chapter Step 3: Create content for your Joomla! site.


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Menus

Menus help website visitors to navigate and access all areas of a website. You can create multiple menus and

configure them to be shown at different locations such as the main menu bar and/or side column.

Sample Menu

In the example above, the administrator created 2 menus:

1. Menu About Joomla!with several menu items Getting Started, Using Joomla!, etc.

2. Menu This Sitewith several menu items Home, Site Map, Login, Sample Sites, etc.

To control menus, go to the menu Menus=> Menu Manager.

The menus in the Joomla! administration

Here you can create menus and menu items linking to any part of the website you want. When the menu is

ready you create a menu module to display the menu at the front-end.


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Users

Joomla! allows your website to have multiple registered users. All users are arranged in user groups, which

have permission to access certain parts of the website. By default there are several user groups such as

Author, Editor, Publisher, etc. For example:

Users assigned to Administratorgroup can work in both back-end and front-end

Users assigned to Registeredgroup can work only at the front-end.

You can manage users, user groups and access levels from the menu item Users.

The menu Users at the back-end


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Extensions

Extensions are specially written software to be plugged into Joomla! in order to extend website functionality.

For example, if you want to have a photo slideshow, video gallery or an advanced contact form, then you will

need to install extensions for these purposes.

By default Joomla! is shipped with several extensions covering basic needs. If you want more, there are

thousands of additionalJoomla! extensionsavailable in theJoomla! Extensions Directory.This is the official

directory of Joomla! extensions maintained by the Joomla! core team themselves.

The Joomla! Extensions Directory

There are 5 basic types of extensions: components, modules, plug-ins, templates and languages. Each of these

extensions handles specific functionality.Letstake a look!
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Component

A component is the most complex type of extension. It can be seen as an application that performs certain tasks

and displays specific content on your site. As mentioned before a video gallery is an example of a component. It

could also be a shopping cart, booking system, forum and more.

The Newsfeedcomponent at the front-end

The content produced by a component is displayed in the main content area. In the example above, you can

see a feed list generated by the component Newsfeeds.

All components are located in the section Components.

The Componentsmenu in the back-end

By default, Joomla! is shipped with following components: Banners, Contacts, Messaging, News

Feeds, Redirect, Search, Smart Searchand Weblinks.


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Module

Modules have similar roles as components but on a smaller scale. They perform simple tasks and display

content as small blocks on a page.

Modules at the front-end

Examples of modules are a search box, login form, menu, footer copyright information, etc. In many cases

modules are working in conjunction with components to present content. For example, a shopping cart

component is used to manage products and a module is used to show hot products.


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All modules are managed in Extensions=> Module Manager.

The module Manager at the back-end


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Templates

The template controls the graphical presentation of your website. It determines the layout, colors, type-faces,

graphics and other aspects of design that make your site unique.

In general, a template consists of 3 elements:

Static graphic elements, like background images, design decoration, logotype, etc.

A main content area presenting data generated by components.

Multiple module positions to show content presented by modules.

Example of background image, module position and main body area


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In the back-end, you can control templates via the menu Extensions=> Template Manager.

Template Manager

By default, Joomla! comes with three front-end templates: Atomic, Beez_20and Beez5. But there are

thousands of both free and commercial templates available, so you can definitely choose a suitable one for

yourself.


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Here are some more examples of front-end templates:

JSN Pixel

JSN Boot
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Plug-ins

Plug-ins are designed to display content inside components and modules. Plug-ins can also perform tasks at

certain points during website loading. You can think about plug-ins as a more versatile way to interact with

the system.

Votingand Read morecontent plugin at front-end

Examples of a plug-in you might see is the voting functionality and the Read morebutton in articles.

All plug-ins are managed in Extensions=> Plug-in Manager.

Plug-in Manager

In the Joomla! 2.5 core package, plug-ins are divided into eleven different categories: authentication,

captcha, content, editors, editor-XTD, extension, finder, quickicon, search, systemand

user.

Languages

Languages allow you to run your site in more than one language. For example, if you want to use French for


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your Joomla! site/administration. You just need to download the French translation packages from theJoomla!

Extension Directory for Languagesthen install them using the Extension Manager.

Language Manager

Both of the two installed languages are shown in Language ManagerAt the back-end.

The next step

Now that you have a little insight into what Joomla! is, its time to experience it in the flesh. Lets install

Joomla! 2.5.x on your local host and give a test drive.
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Step 2: Install Joomla! 2.5.x on local host


Installing Joomla! 2.5.x on local host is easy but can be tricky the first time. So in this step you will be providedwith clear instructions on how to start from the scratch.

First, lets make it clear about the meaning of Localhost. As you know, any website needs to be hosted on a

web server in order to be shown to users. Normally, you would need to buy a hosting package from some

hosting provider like Rackspace or GoDaddy. Depended on the package you choose, a hosting provider will

install a web server for you on one of their server machines. So, localhost is basically the same web server but

installed on your own computer.

Now, in order to run Joomla!, you need not only a web server, but also 2 more things: PHP script interpreter

and MySQL database system. It sounds complicated but thankfully, there is a single package called XAMPPwith all the elements included.

Lets install XAMPP on your computer.
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Install XAMPP

1. Download the XAMPP installer package athttp://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

2. Run the installation file as you do with regular software and follow the step by step instructions.

3. Open XAMPP Control Panel Applicationand start Apache and MySQL.

XAMPP Control Panel Application

Thats it, your localhost is now installed. You can check if it works or not by typing the address

http://localhost in your web browser and see a page as bellow.

XAMPP for Windows interface

Now you are ready to install Joomla!.
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Install Joomla!

1. Download the Joomla! 2.5.x full package athttp://www.joomla.org/download.html

2. Create a new folder entitled joomla25in folder htdocsin XAMPP folder. Normally it will be

located at C:\xampp\htdocs

3. Unpack the downloaded package file into the folder joomla25

4. Go to the URL http://localhost/joomla25

5. Follow all steps in the Joomla! installation as follows:

a. Step 1. Language

Choose your own language, for example, English (United States)and then click the button

Next

b. Step 2. Pre-Installation checkIf all pre-conditions are checked Yes, you can take the next steps. If at least one condition is

checked No, please find out the problem and fix it.

c. Step 3. License

Read the GNU/GPL v2 license, then click the button Next. You can skip this if you are

already familiar with this license.

d. Step 4. Database

Input parameters related to your database:

Host name:localhost

Username: root

Password: leave it blank if you didnt set password for database

Database Name:joomla25

e. Step 5. FTP Configuration

You can skip this step.

f. Step 6. ConfigurationInput parameters related to your website:

Site name: your website name

Your Email: your email

Admin Username: your admin username, like admin

Admin Password: your admin password, like admin

Confirm admin password: type your admin password again

There is a button Install Sample Databut dont click it. We will build a website from scratch

with our own content.
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g. Step 7. Finish

This is the last step. Here you just need to click the button Remove installation folderbutton

to complete the installation process. After that, you can either click on Siteto see your newly

created site or Administratorto access the administration area.

Now you have your first Joomla! site installed successfully! Its not too hard, right? If you have trouble with the

installation process, you can try the following sources for answers:

Official Joomla! forum

The Joomla! forum one of the busiest (and most friendly) support forums in the world, and it is a great

place to get help and meet other Joomla! users. There are a lot of questions and answers which are

discussed here. Because our topic now is about Joomla! 2.5 installation, so you can find help in the

categoryInstallation Joomla! 2.5.

Joomla! help live (http://joomla.cmshelplive.com/)

This website provides you with on-demand Joomla! Support service. Of course, you have to pay money

for the service but your problem will be fixed by Joomla! experts.

Other Joomla! learning resources

There are many other websites which you can take as your Joomla! learning resources:

o http://docs.joomla.org/Beginners

o http://www.joomlatutorials.com

o http://www.joomlablogger.net

o http://www.ostraining.com/

The next step

Installing Joomla! 2.5.x on your local host is the first thing you need to do successfully before getting started

with your Joomla! site.Now, when your website is ready, lets fill it with content.
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Step 3: Create content for your Joomla! site

Watch the video tutorial-Part 1&Part 2

Naturally the most important element of every website is the content. In this step, you will:

1. Prepare the content structure

2. Create categories and articles

3. Create a menu

Prepare content structure

Creating content is like arranging the products in a grocery store. In Joomla!, articlesare like products,

categoriesare like the shelves holding products and menus arelike aislesto those shelves.Now, lets imagine

you have website selling luxury items. The content structure might look like following:

1. About

a. About my site

b. How to purchase/order products

c. How to make payment

2. News

a. Latest newsb. Arrivals

c. Sale

d. Coupons

e. Promotion

3. Support

a. Hotline information

b. Online customer services

c. Contact us
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Create content

Now, when the content structure is ready on paper, its time to match it in Joomla!. Lets start with creating

categories.

Categories

1. Go to Content=> Category Managerand click button Newon the toolbar.

Add a new category

2. Next, insert the category title Aboutand click the button Saveon the toolbar.

Input category information


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After saving, you can see your new category Aboutappeared in Category Manager.

The category About my site

You can create all the rest of your categories in the same way.

6 new categories

When the categories are ready, its time to create articles.


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Articles

Lets add a new article in the category About my site.

1. Go to Content=> Article Managerand click Newicon on the toolbar.

Article Manager

2. Next, you need to configure 3 parameters:

Title: Input About my site.

Category: Select category About my sitefrom the list. Article text: Input the articles content.

Note:

Right now, we will assume that you have a simple article with plain text. Later, in the section Make articles

look goodwe will discuss more about how to create articles with rich content.


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Add new article

3. When you are finished, click the button Save & Closeon the toolbar to save your newly-created

article.

Click the button Save & Close to save article


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Now, you have a new article in Article Manager.

The new article About my site

In the same way, add another two articles How to purchase/order productsand How to make paymentin

the About my sitecategory.

3 newly created articles

Now, after completing the content creating process, there is one final thing to do: create menu items with links

to articles.


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Menu

In Joomla!, a menu is the collection of links to certain elements like articles. In the back-end all menus are

located in the section Menus. By default, Joomla! is preinstalled with a menu called Main Menu.

Main Menu

Lets add newmenu items to theMain Menu.

1. Click on the Main Menuin the Menus drop-down menu.

Click Main Menu to see all menu items associated

2. Next, click the button Newto create a new menu item.


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Click the button New to create a new menu item

3. Next, click the button Selectto choose the menu item type.

Select menu item type


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6. Next, you have to choose the article you want to display. On the right corner of the screen, click the

button Select/ Changeto select an article.

Click on the button Select/ Change

7. A pop-up screen will be display. Select the article About my site.

Click on the article you want to select

8. Finally, click the button Saveor Save & Closeto finish.


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Click on the button Save & Close to save data

After that, you can create menu links to the other 2 articles How to purchase/order productsand Howto

make a payment.

3 newly created menu items

Now, you can go to the front-end and see the result.


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The new articles in main menu

When you click on each link, you will see the corresponding article.

The article About my site

Now you can repeat similar steps to create links to all necessary articles.


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Manage your content with JSN PowerAdmin

When working with Joomla! if you have created a lot of menus, articles or modules, you will find it can be

difficult to locate a specific one. So an extension which helps you do that quickly and simply would be very

useful. Our recommendation is the free, popular extension called JSN PowerAdmin.

JSN PowerAdmin will help you:

1. Search for any items quickly in the back-endwith Spotlight Search. You can save time finding the items

you need to edit.

2. Control the website content in one place with Site Manager. From that, administrators canedit an article

ormanage modulesand menu items with the drag-and-dropfeature.

JSN PowerAdmin Site Manager

This extension is highly rated by Joomla! users on the JED with 30+ votes and 30+ reviews. It is described in

more detail inStep 7: Manage your Joomla! websites with JSN PowerAdmin

Download JSN PowerAdmin Free-Learn more about JSN PowerAdmin on Youtube.
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Make articles look good

You already know how to create an article. Its time to get more advanced and create articles that are appealing.

There are several techniques you can use to do this such as formatting text, adding images, links, etc.

Format text

If you have worked with Microsoft Word or any other text processor, then text formatting in Joomla! will seem

familiar to you. Although it is much simpler than Microsoft Word as there are just a few basic text formatting

options.

Lets go to Article Managerand click on the article About my siteto open it. Now focus on the article editor

area. This is the place where you edit your article:

Edit the article in article text


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Take a close look at formatting options, most of the icons look very familiar, with icons to make your text bold,

italic or underlined and icons to aligning your text. Just select the text you want to style and click the styling

icon.

Joomla! article formatting buttons

You can create headings of different levels in your text by selecting the text to be styled and clicking the drop-

down menu Paragraph. Scroll down the drop-down menu and choose a suitable heading from Heading 1

to Heading 6.

Choose heading for text

You can see the text is now larger:

Heading 1 in the text


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Add images

Before you add images to articles, you should organize them into specific folders.

Create image folders

1. Go to Content=> Media Manager.

2. Input a folder name and click the Create Folderbutton.

Create a new category for image

Now you have your new folder in Media Manager.

The folder aboutmysite in the Media Manager


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Upload images

Now, its time to upload the images into your newly created image folder aboutmysite.

1. Click on the aboutmysitefolder, then click on the button Browse

Browse file


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2. Select the image file you want to upload. At this point you can only select a single file at a time, but

later we will show you how to select multiple files at once.

Select image file

3. Click on the button Start Uploadto upload the image.

Start upload of the image

Now, your newly uploaded image is in the aboutmysitecategory.


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The image shown in the category aboutmysite

With this way of uploading, you can only upload one image at a time, so it takes you a lot of time and effort if

you have a lot of images. Luckily there is another method of uploading multiple files - with the flash uploader.

Lets take a look.

1. In Media Manager, click on the Optionsbutton on the toolbar.

Click the button Options


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2. In the window Media Manager Options, open the Componenttab, and set the parameter

Enable flash uploaderto Yesto enable flash uploader and click Save & Close.

Enable flash uploader

3. Go back to the main screen. It should look like the screenshot below. Now you can click Browse files

to upload multiple images simultaneously.

Browse files


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4. Select multiple files. You can use your mouse cursor to mark all files or hold the CTRLkey and click

on the individual files you want to select to mark them.

Select images

5. Click on the button Start Uploadand wait until the uploading process completes.

Uploading images


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Now you have these images in the category.

The newly uploaded images

Add images to article

Once images are uploaded to the server, you can add them to an article. Lets use the same article About my

site.

1. With the article open, place your cursor at the point in the text where you want to insert an image and

click the button Imagebelow the article text pane.

Add an image into the text


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2. Choose the appropriate image to insert.

Open the images file

3. Input to the Image DescriptionandImage Titleparameters to describe the image and click on the

button Insertat the top of the screen to finish the image insertion.

Choose the image by clicking on it


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4. Recheck how the image is inserted in the article.

An image is inserted in the text

Now, you might feel that the image is too big or too small and want to change its dimensions or alignment. You

click on the image first, and then click on the button Insert/edit image in the formatting optionsabove the

article editor to edit it.

The button to edit/insert image


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A pop-up screen will be displayed. Here, you can edit the image as you wish. For example, lets change the

dimensions and set alignment to Right, then click the button Updatebelow.

Edit the image

Click the button Save & Closeon the toolbar on the Article Manager and go to the site to see your new

article with image.

The new article with image in the site


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Add links

Add internal links

Its a very common situation to create internal links between articles. These links are not only useful for your

users to browse content, but also good for SEO. Lets see how to create internal links inside an article.

1. Open the article you want to add internal links to.

2. Select the text you want to be linked (this is called the anchor text).

3. Click the Articlebutton below the article editor.

Insert a link into the article

4. Now you will see a pop-up window with the list of all your articles. Find the article you want to link to

and click on its title.

Select appropriate article


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As the result, the title of selected article is used as link text.

New link in the text

You can change link text just as regular text.

The text after being edited

5. Now click on the Savebutton and go to the front-end of your site to see the article with new link.

The article with link in the site


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If you want to edit a link, just select it and click the icon Insert/edit linkas shown bellow.

Edit the link

Or you can remove the link but leave the text in the place by using icon Unlink.

Unlink the article


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Add external links

In previous section, you learnt how to create internal links, i.e. those which link to articles on your website. In

this section, you will see how to create external links to any page on the Internet.

1. Select the text which you want to apply link to and then click the icon Insert/edit link.

Adding external link

A pop-up window will be displayed as below:

Adding URL


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2. Input the following values to the 4 parameters in this screen:

o Link URL

The destination address for where you want the link to go to.

o Target

There are two options for you to choose: Open link in the same window or Open link in a new

window (When you leave it Not set, the link will open in the same window).

o Title

Short text describing the link.

o Class

As a Joomla! newbie, for now just set it to Not set (the two other options are Caption and

System Page break).

3. Click the Insertbutton to insert this link. You can now see that your text is linked to the externalwebsite.

The linked text


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Add Page Break and Read More

In the case of long articles, you might want to divide the article into small and separate sections so they are

easier to read. With Joomla!, you have two options to do this:

1. Page BreakThis element divides one article into separate pages such as Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, etc. Page break links

are ideal for very long articles.

2. Read More

This element divides a full single article into a teaser text and the rest of the article. If you want to read

the rest of the article, you have to click on the Read Morelink.

Now, we will learn how to work with each of them, one by one!

Add Page Break

1. Place the text cursor in to the position where you want to split the article.

2. Click on the Page Breakbutton below the article editor.

Adding a page break


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3. Input the title you want to give to this page in parameter Page Titleand click the Insert Page

Breakbutton.

Insert a page break screen

4. Thats allthere is to it. Now you will see a dotted line showing a page break inside your article as in the

screenshot below.

Dotted line showing a page break

5. Click the Savebutton.

6. View your site to see the result. It shows a list beside the article, you just need to click on the title or

Nextto go to that page.


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New page break in the website

Note:

You can add as many page breaks as you want into your article.

You can delete the page break by opening the article (in the back end), placing your cursor at the end ofthe page breaks dotted line and pressing the Backspaceon your keyboard.

Add Read More link

Adding a Read Morelink is similar to adding a page break link process.

1. Place text cursor in the position in the article where you want it split into the introduction and main

content pars.

2. Click on the Read Morebutton under article editor.


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Insert a read more link

You will see a dotted line in red.

Read more dotted line


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3. Find the parameter Featuredand set it to Yes. This will make this article appear on the front-page

of the website.

Featured article

4. Click the button Saveto finish.

Here is your article with a read more link at the front-end. You just need to click on the button Read

moreto read the full article

The article with read more link


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Step 4: Customize your website appearance

with a Joomla! template


At this point, we have finished preparing the content for the website. Its time to think about appearance.

What is a Joomla! template?

As mentioned before, a template controls the graphical presentation of your website. It determines the layout,

colors, type-faces, graphics and other aspects of design that make your site unique. There are two types of

templates: Site templatefor front-end presentation and Administrator templatefor back-end presentation.

Site template

The site templateschange the way your website looks to visitors.

A front-end template

Most of the time, you will be dealing with the site templates to change public look-n-feel of your website.
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Administrator template

Administrator templates changes the way the administrator interface looks.

A back-end template

If you are building a website for yourself, then you will probably never need to change your back-end template.

When building websites for clients, you might need to slightly customize the administrator template to reflect

your customers brand.


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Choose a Joomla! template

Template resources

The quickest and easiest way to enhance the design of your website is to use an existing Joomla! template.

There are many available on the Internet.

Free templates resources

The Joomla! community creates thousands of free templates for you to choose from. Check following websites:

http:///www.joomla24.com

http://www.joomlaos.de/

http://www.bestofjoomla.com

Commercial templates resources

If you have enough budget to purchase a template, then we strongly recommend you take a look at following

template providers

http://www.joomlart.com

http://www.rockettheme.com

http://www.yootheme.com

http://www.gavick.com

http://www.joomlashine.com

Search on the Internet

You can search on Google with the key words: Joomla Templatesortemplate for Joomlaand you will get

about 120 million results.
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Criteria for choosing the right template

So you can see that there are a lot of Joomla! templates to choose from. Here are some criteria that can help you

choose the right template.

Compatibility

Which Joomla! version does it support? You need to choose a template which supports Joomla! 2.5

Commercial or Non-commercial

Do you want to have a high-quality template and support or you are on tight budget and therefore must

go with free template? Normally, commercial templates have higher quality, more comprehensive

documentation and better support than non-commercial.

Documentation

How well-documented it is? Does the documentation help you understand all the template features?

Does it show you ways to customize the template?

Support

Is there ongoing support for the template? What ways can you get support?Via phone, live chat,

forum?

Design

Does it match the look and feel that you want for your site? If it is similar to your desired design, you

wont have to spend much timecustomizing it.

FeaturesProfessional templates provide many features whereas a lot of free templates provide limited features

If you are an individual or an ordinary user, a free template may be a suitable choice. However, if you are

creating a business website, its definitely worth spending a few dollars on a commercial template from a

professional provider. Dont think you are wasting money; aside from higher quality design and code, you

also get good documentation and support. The time you save will be more than worth the money spent.


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Install a Joomla! template

After you have selected an appropriate Joomla! template, its time to install it.

1. Go to Extensions=> Extension Manager.

Extensions => Extension Manager

2. Click the Choose Filebutton, find the template file you have downloaded, then click on the button

Upload & Install. After that, you get a notification which informs you that the template has been

installed successfully.

Browse the template file from your computer


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3. Now that you have your new template installed, its time to apply it to your site. Go to Extensions=>

Template Manager.

Choose Template Manager

4. Select the check box next to your new Joomla! template, then from the top right menu, click on the icon

Make Defaultwhich will set the selected template to be the default design for your Joomla! website.

Choose Make Default

5. Now, you click on the View sitebutton at the back-end to see the front-end and enjoy the result.


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Step 5: Arrange modules in positions


Note: You can do this step withJSN PowerAdmin easily by drag and drop feature.What is a Joomla! module and position?

As mentioned before, a module performs simple tasks and displays content as small blocks positioned

around the page. Each module is located in a specific position, e.g. module Main menuis placed in

position left. Each position is designed to occupy a place in a pages layout, i.e. position leftis placed on

the left side of main content. Each template can have many different positions occupying various places on

the page.

Here is another way to think about this concept. Imagine your webpage as a wall. On that wall, there are

several pin boards (module positions) hanged in various places. In each pin board, there are several stick notes(modules) pinned. So at the end you have the wall full of stick notes (modules) arranged in pin boards

(positions) hanging on the wall.

There are two types of modules: Site moduleto be utilized in the front-end and Administrator modulefor

the back-end.

Site modules at front-end
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Administrator modules at back-end


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How can I see the module positions of a template?

Its hard to see all the module positions available in a template by just looking at the webpage. Luckily, Joomla!

provides a tool for users to see an outline of all positions. Here is how to use it:

1. Go to Extensions=> Template Manager.

2. In Template Manager, click the icon Optionson the toolbar.

3. Next, set the parameter Preview Module Positionsto Enabledand click Save & Close.

Enable preview module positions

4. Now, click on the tab Template.

Click on the Template tab

5. In this pop-up screen, all installed templates are shown, so scroll down to the template Beez_20 and

click Preview to see the module positions of this template.


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Module Positions in site

Now you can see all module positions of the template. This will help you to choose the right position when you

add a new module.


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Add a new module to the page

Now that you are familiar with the Joomla! module and position concept, lets learn about adding a new module

to your web page.

Get familiar with default modules

By default, Joomla! comes with bunch of modules ready to use. Lets take a look:

Users modules

Modules designed for user presentation and service.

Whos online

This module displays the number of guests and registered users that are currently on the website.

Latest usersThis module displays the latest registered users.

Login

This module displays a login form with username, password fields and some other links.

Content modules

Modules designed for article presentation.

Latest articles

This module shows a list of the most recently published and current articles.

Most read content

This module shows a list of the currently published articles which have the highest number of page

views.

News flash

This module displays a number of articles of a category based on date or random selection.

Related items

This module displays other articles that are related to the one currently being viewed.

Archive

This module shows a list of the calendar months containing archived articles.

Article categories

This module displays categories from one parent category.

Articles category

This module allows you to display the articles in a certain category.

Display modules

Modules designed for rich content presentation.


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Custom HTML

This module allows you to add any custom HTML code you want.

Feed display

This module allows the displaying of a syndicated feed.

Footer

This module shows the Joomla! copyright information.

Random image

This module displays a random image from a chosen image directory.

Web links

This module displays the list of web links in a category.

Banner

The banner module is used to display the banners in Banners Component.

Utility modules

Modules designed to perform mini tasks.

Smart search

This module provides search using the Smart Search component.

Wrapper

This module shows an iFrame window to specified location.

Language switcher

This module displays available content languages for switching between them.

Search

This module will display a search box.

Statistics

This module shows statistics information about your server, web site users, articles, web links, etc.

Syndicate

The syndicate module will display a link that allows users to take a feed from your site.


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Utility modules

Modules designed to present website navigation.

Menu

This module displays a menu on the site.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs give users the pathway to navigate through the site.

Add a new module

Now, lets see how to add a new module.

1. Go to Extensions=> Module Manager, then click button Newon toolbar.

Click New to add a new module

2. In a pop-up window, choose the module you want to add. For example, lets add a Loginmodule to

allow users to login to the website.

Select Login module


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3. Now you need to enter information for the new module. Dont forget to select the position where you

want to place the module.

Enter information for module

4. Finally, click on the Save & Closebutton to complete the process.

Lets see how it looks at the front-end!

Login module on site

You can add more modules with the same process.


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Configure modules settings

Order modules in a positions

Now you have learnt that all modules are placed in position like sticky notes pinned in a pin board. And just

like in real life, you can reorder the modules that are in a position. Lets see how to do this!

1. Go to Module Managerand click on column header Ordering.

2. Click icon or to move the module to new position. If you want to change position of multiple

modules, then set desired order to text box in column Orderingand click icon .

Click Ordering to enable ordering mode


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Step 6: Extend website functionality with

Joomla! extensions

Watch the video tutorial -Part 1&Part 2

As mentioned before, extensions are specially written software to be plugged into Joomla! in order to extend a

websites functionality. For example, if you want to have a photo slideshow, video gallery or an advanced

contact form, then you will need to install extensions for those purposes. For more detailed information about

Joomla! extensions, please refer to section Extensions.

By default Joomla! is shipped with several extensions covering basic needs.

Banners

Extension for banners management and presentation.

Contacts

Extension for contacts management and contact form presentation.

Newsfeeds

Extension for RSS feeds management and presentation.

Redirect

Extension for URL redirects management.

WeblinksExtension for links management and presentation.

Lets take a closer look at one of the default extensions to understand how to work with Joomla! extensions in

general.
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Work with the default extension Contacts

In this section, we will learn how to use the Joomla! extension Contacts.This extension allows you to create

contact forms so that people can send email messages to you.

Create contact category

We need to create contacts in order for users to contact us via a form. But to better organize contacts, we need

to create contact categories first.

1. Go to Components=> Contacts=> Categories.

Click on contact categories


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2. Next, click on the Newbutton on the toolbar to create new contact category.

Click New to create a new contact category

3. Next, fill in the title of your new contact category, for example Website Administrators, and save it

by clicking Save & Close.

New contact category


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Create new contact

When the contact categories are ready, you can create individual contacts.

1. Go to Components=> Contacts=> Contacts.

Click on the "Contacts" menu item

2. Next, click on the button Newon the toolbar to create new contact.

Click on the button New to create a new contact

3. Next, fill following fields in section New Contact:

Name

Enter the contact name, it might be your name

Category

Choose the category you created previously


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Enter contact information

4. Next, in the Contact Detailssection on the right-hand side of the screen, fill the contacts email

address in the parameter Email. This is a very important parameter, since all data collected from the

contact form will be sent to this email address.

Enter contact email

5. Finally, click Save & Closeto save this contact.


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Create a menu item to show contact form

Now that we have created a contact to send the form to, its time to create the form for users to use when they

want to get in touch.

1. Select menu item Menus=> Main Menu=> Add new menu items.

Add new menu item

2. Next, click Selectto select menu item type.

Click on select button to select menu item type


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3. Next, choose Single Contact.

Select Single Contact


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4. Next, fill in the Menu Titlefield with the title you want, for instance Contact me.

Fill in the Menu Title field

5. Next, you need to select the desired contact by clicking on the button Change Contact.

Click Change Contact


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6. Then, click on the contact you created previously.

Click on the chosen contact

7. Finally, click Save & Closeto save this menu item.
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joomla2.5madeeasy

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